Sean Garland

Sean Garland (7 March 1934-) was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Ireland from 1977 to 1990, succeeding Sean O'Kenneth and preceding Des Geraghty. Garland allied with the Soviet Union and North Korea against the United Kingdom during The Troubles, during which he was an important leader of the Official IRA.

Biography
Sean Garland was born in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland on 7 March 1934, and he joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. On 12 June 1954, he passed on British Army information to the IRA while serving in the armed forces of the United Kingdom, giving the IRA information on a British arms depot. In 1957, Garland, Sean South, and Fergal O'Hanlon led a failed raid on another British barracks in Northern Ireland, and Garland was captured, while his two comrades were killed. Garland was imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail until 1959, and he became a Marxist during the 1960s. Garland supported the pro-left-wing agitation faction of the IRA, which sought to wage a peaceful independence struggle against the British government, and he became a leader of the Official IRA. During the 1970s, the OIRA engaged in an internal struggle with the Irish National Liberation Army, another revolutionary socialist movement that was fighting against the British during "The Troubles". In 1977, he became the General Secretary of the "Sinn Fein the Workers' Party", later renamed the Workers' Party of Ireland in 1982. Garland met with North Korean officials in Moscow, Russia in 1999 to acquire counterfeited US money to exchange the fake money for British pounds, which would help the IRA with funds. He also allied with the Soviet Union, which sent KGB agents to train IRA members in security. In 2005, he was arrested for his distribution of "superdollars", but he successfully fought against extradition.